Chapter 40 - Eruption (CitC)
Tubba had never expected it to come to this. Standing at the rim of a boiling pool of lava just behind him, and four persons lining the crags and rocks above, looking down at him in his vulnerable position, their faces glowing orange in the lava boiling in the large pool behind Tubba. The screes and rocks were too steep to climb, he was well and truly stuck. Lava bubbled greedily behind him, and evil eyes glinted above him. To fall so far from the euphoria of hours before was unfathomable. * "You must get rid of Tubba. That's the terms of the deal." Clubbette snarled at Ludwig. Aboard the Koopa heir's airship was no place to threaten him, so she held back on what she was desperately craving to say. "You better fulfill it, or I'll make your death painful." Ludwig was sitting in front of her in the main chair of his airship, scratching his blue stubble thoughtfully as he looked around the bridge of his airship, looking at nothing in particular. "I know zee deal. I made it, and convinced my fazzer vith much difficulty," Ludwig growled, glaring at the Clubba in front of him. "Zee Clubba Kingdom vill become a vard to zee Koopa Kingdom upon zee removal of the two staunchest supporters of the independent Clubba Kingdom - Mycerinus and Tubba. Mycerinus is dead, zat's not zee issue, the issue is zat Tubba has escaped everysing vee have srown at him. You are zee vone who said zat zee battlers vould abandon him at zee first chance. Zis vas clearly not the case." Ludwig scowled at Clubbette, who huffed and turned her back, gazing out the dark frontal window of the airship. "It wasn't me who said that. But whatever. You better have a plan to get rid of him at Gusty Gulch." "Actually, I sink I do." Ludwig clasped his hands together, and then brandished his magic wand at Clubbette. "And it involves you." *'' Junior's airship had closed in on the Koopa contingent before they had even managed to cross into Sky Land. Tubba had implored Clubbar to stay with the battlers, to keep himself safe, but the elderly Clubba refused to let Tubba chase Ludwig alone. The battlers would be paid for their services to the Kingdom, but Tubba would not be satisified with just that. The land underneath the corporeal clouds of Sky Land were full of active volcanoes, the start of the Mushroomas Mountains, the most famous being Barrel Volcano. Tubba intended to use Barrel Volcano as the new border, almost doubling the Clubba territory. While there were no key resources in the volcanic or cloudy land, claiming Barrel Volcano would allow the Clubba Kingdom to send a message to the three other mainland Kingdoms, while keeping away from the forces of Nimbus Land just beyond. The Koopas had long since spotted the Clubban airship, but since the airships they flew were on the verge of failing, and they did not know how undermanned the Clubbas were, they did not bother to turn around and engage the Clubbas. Barrel Volcano was just coming into sight when the first stars were beginning to vanish in the predawn light, upon which Ludwig threw Tubba a curveball. Although he had to squint in the first streaks of rosy light, he could clearly see the flash of lightning and hear the crack of thunder that accompanied an Iglator-Koopa landing on the base of Barrel Volcano. He was barely visible, but Tubba knew exactly which Iglator-Koopa had landed there. Ludwig had left the two Koopan airships through the sky beyond the volcano, buying his Kingdom's airships time away from the Clubban pursuit. He clearly intended for Tubba to follow him into the volcano. The rational part of his brain was screaming him to not follow a highly skilled and highly dangerous Iglator-Koopa into a place without backup and where Ludwig could only feel at home, but Tubba was flushed and confident with the success of chasing the enemies off his motherland, as well as the knowledge he had beaten Ludwig ten years prior. He had only gotten fitter, stronger and faster. Clubbar understood completely where Tubba was coming from, and agreed wholeheartedly with the plan to chase Ludwig into the volcano, defeat, and likely hostage him. Holding the Koopan heir against his will would be a major bargaining chip as the Clubbas began to reclaim the land that had belonged to them so long ago. As always, the Clubban Commander had come through for Tubba and understood what he wanted. * ''Sending a Koopan submarine to the Waffle Kingdom to ensure that Tubba was dead was just a safety measure; Ludwig needed to ensure the Clubba was dead. Upon the death of Tubba, the Koopa Kingdom would've fulfilled their terms of the deal, and the Clubba Kingdom would dissolve into them upon the removal of their Mushroom-Bean hosts. There was no way anyone could survive a crash from that altitude without engines. Clubbette would've been lost in as collateral damage, but that did mean the Koopa Kingdom could back out. There were still two other Clubbas who knew the terms of the treaty. But the dastardly Tubba had foiled yet another plan by sheer dumb luck. Not only had he avoided Clubbette's attempts to kill him immediately after, but he also survived the crash, for his battler friends had engaged enough engines to slow the descent down from terminal to just critical. He had even escaped lasting damage. Ludwig could've torn his hair out in fury. Tubba was proving to be tenacious, but not through his own skills. They had grossly underestimated the battlers and their relationship to Tubba. They would have one last chance at Gusty Gulch. They could not blow it. *'' They had docked the ship just outside the volcano, sweating profusely from their foreheads and armpits, their eyes adjusting to the dim, eerie glow of the orange lava spread around the volcano in lakes and rivers. One wrong step and they would be charred to a crisp. Barrel Volcano was a very unforgiving place, but that did not mean that lava dwelling creatures such as Podoboos or the rock dwelling Magmus did not occupy the area. Ludwig had vanished long before they entered, forcing Tubba and Clubbar to eternally be on their guard. The rock-dwelling creatures did not mind them much, but the Podoboos did scorch them in a few harrowing leaps in jumps from rock to rock, the lava bubbling far below, an ocean of orange. Having experienced much worse in a short time span, the scorch marks were hardly more than a mere trifle for Tubba. Fighting Ludwig would be much more threatening. It was only when they broke into a large cavern in the volcano that any progess was made. A ring of rocks and crags towered high above a small ledge, itself high above a boiling lava pool far below. The ring was barely wide enough for Tubba to walk, slipping and sending tiny rocks flying to the ledge below, some even bouncing off it and into the lava. Clubbar was just behind him, also having equal amounts of difficulty scaling the ring of rocks. Screes surrounded the rocks on both sides, with the one on the lava pool side far steeper and harder to climb up. It was possible, however, using the ring of rocks as an anchor, to use the other side of the scree to get to the opposite side of the cavern. With no option except to go through or turn around and quit, Tubba gingerly placed his legs on the non-lava pool side of the scree, his arms grabbing the unstable rocks before him, while still holding Karubba's club. Slowly but surely, he began to inch his way to the other end of the cavern, Clubbar just behind him. What he had not been expecting, however, was the hefty push from behind that sent him tumbling over the rocks, and down the scree on the other side. * ''"GB saved his life. You vere so certain, so positive zat GB vould pull zee lever and Rosalina vould kill him." "I was." Clubbette nodded. The room they were in was the bridge of the Super Bowser Doomship, but it was completely empty except for Bowser Junior at the controls, Ludwig looking out into the vast expanse of space and Clubbette a few steps behind him. "I was so positive. They hate him; why would they save him? Letting him die would've been for the greater good." She scratched her head disbelievingly. "I can't believe they saved him." "And zen I could not, I vould not, let Rosalina get ahold of him," Ludwig explained, "Vhile she vas no doubt displeased, zere vas no vay zat she vould kill him. Which, vasn't the-" "Terms of the deal," finished Clubbette. "The Koopa Kingdom must kill him. If you don't, well, we have a problem." "Vee have to get him to fight at zee Power Stars. Zee Power Stars of zee Mushroom Kingdoma are guarded by zeir best and most competent ship. Vee set a temporary cloaking field and acted like vee got false information about it to get Tubba into space and the intention of killing him at zee Comet Observatory. Vee failed. Vee MUST get him fighting at the zee Power Stars." Ludwig's eyes smoldered with rage as he glared out the ship. "How hard is vone Clubba to kill?" "He won't fight," Clubbette crossed her arms and drew level with Ludwig. "Not without his club." "Then vee need to teach him electricity, so zat he vill fight. I doubt he vould put up much of a fight anyvay. Vee need him dead by the Mushroom Ship." *'' Ludwig had leered over the side of the cliff. "You actually followed me in? To sink, zis is zee same Clubba zat gave me so much difficulty to kill." His face was filled with glee, the orange lava light accentuating every scar on his face, scars Tubba had never noticed before. "You valk right into zee trap of zee enemy?" Tubba's easily-surfacable anger was boiling beneath his skin as he realized what had happened, his body sore and lightly bleeding from the trip to the ledge below. Thankfully, he had stopped on the ledge, the lava pool boiling behind him. There was no way he could scale the cliff with his heavy weight. All he could do was stand there glaring at the Koopan Heir, Karubba's club having fallen next to him. Besides, someone was just behind Ludwig, someone that would teach Ludwig that he had not come alone. Clubbar had loomed up behind Ludwig, and Tubba's anger faded rapidly. In one swift strike, the wizened Clubba would knock Ludwig down the scree toward Tubba, leaving him at Tubba's mercy. It was not Tubba who had miscalculated, it was Ludwig. Satisfaction was welling up inside him when he saw that Clubbar, rather than doing what he had expected, was standing resolute behind Ludwig. Ludwig must have seen Tubba's expression change from anger to satisfaction and then to shock, for he looked over his shoulder at the green Clubba. With a hearty, booming laugh that echoed eerily around the walls of the cavern, Ludwig crossed his arms, delight writ across his face. "You don't get it, do you, Tubba? You've been picking the wrong side the whole time." At those words, two more shapes appeared at his shoulders. Tubba was utterly shocked as he realized that one was Clubbette, battered from her loss to him earlier but still finding enough energy to smile insolently at him, and the other was Mazette, the lava light making her glow more orange than usual. "What's going on here?" Tubba asked, fear creeping into his voice. * ''The high, arching ceilings were typical of Clubba Castle, as were the phony wooden walls, hiding the exterior walls of stones. The dull brown wallpaper of a decade ago had long vanished, replaced with vibrant colours such as orange, yellow and light blue, including tapestries of the current King, Mycerinus, a smaller, dark blue Clubba, wielding his club and smiting enemies. Standing in front of one of these tapestries were three Clubbas. Two of them were young females of clear royalty, judging by the amount of makeup they were wearing, and the other was a graying green Clubba clearly nearing the end of his lifespan. "I agree that the Clubba Kingdom's residents would be better to be dissolved into a larger Kingdom, but Mycerinus would never agree." Clubbar croaked, casting an eye on the tapestry before them. Clubbette nodded, her eyes glowing. "The citizens would also do well with Mazette and I in power. We wouldn't be caught up in the trifles of war and keeping our independence, rather, we would feed off a larger Kingdom, provided we kept the same rights." "We're not dissolving into either the Mushroom Kingdom or the BeanBean Kingdom. I'd rather die than be allied with those half-hearted Star-worshippers." Mazette snarled, jabbing a finger into her chest. "The Koopa Kingdom, however, would be a more than ideal parent Kingdom." "These aren't your decisions to make, however." Clubbar warned, ensuring that they were still alone in the room with a quick glance around. Mazette snorted. "Who are the three people who outrank me in the line of succession?" She held up her three fingers, counting them off as she went. "Mycerinus - the current King, Tubba - first in line, and Chubba - second in line. Clubbette doesn't count, because she was illegitimate. That trio is hardly anything worth betting on. The only one ''worth ''anything is Chubba, and he doesn't care about what happens to the Kingdom." "Mycerinus, the blithering idiot, will get himself killed in battle against the Mushroom-Beans soon. The only one we should worry about is Tubba." Clubbette emphasized her half-brother's name with hatred. "I don't want Tubba dead." Clubbar instantly spoke, met with surprised glances by the two younger females. "We need him out of the way," said Mazette. "What if he reads a newspaper and comes here? He holds legal claim to the throne, and people will rally around him for the Clubban independence, even though he was a murderer. All it would take would be one battle win for the entire Kingdom to rally around him." "Well, first we'd need to ''get to him," cautioned Clubbette.'' *'' Tubba had never expected it to come to this. Standing at the rim of a boiling pool of lava just behind him, and four persons lining the crags and rocks above, looking down at him in his vulnerable position, their faces glowing orange in the lava boiling in the large pool behind Tubba. The screes and rocks were too steep to climb, he was well and truly stuck. Lava bubbled greedily behind him, and evil eyes glinted above him. To fall so far from the euphoria of hours before was unfathomable. "Clubbar?! What's going on here?" Tubba asked the only person he had any semblance of liking of in the four. "What's going on?" He repeated, feeling completely nonplussed. "Your birthright got in the way." Clubbar said, but he didn't go any farther. ''My birthright? The Kingship? How did that get in the way? Unless... "You lied to me, didn't you?" Tubba realized, appalled. The Clubba he had trusted with his life had lied to him. He was the rightful King of Gusty Gulch - not Mazette, as Clubbar had claimed aboard the SS Cloansar. "Why?" "You were always a resolute advocate of independent Clubbas. I feel you took the Cloansar story too literally for this day and age. Clubbas ruling the world was possible back in his day. Not in ours. The best thing for the Clubba Kingdom would be to dissolve." Clubbar spoke as if he carried some regret, but there was also an edge to his tone, as if he scorned Tubba. "The Clubbas are ''independent!" Tubba roared back, his short fuse fizzling. "We can fight these Koopas, these Toads, these Beans! We are the greatest genetically gifted species on the planet! A few fights and we'd reclaim the glory that eluded us since the days of Cloansar!" His mind was struggling to process everything that was happening to him. His biggest supporter other than his father back in his youth had turned on him. "You've gone senile!" Clubbar looked genuinely hurt for a moment, but he quickly balked and snarled back: "And how many Clubbas would've died? Dissolving would save lives. You are being driven by pure ambition and a belief that is outdated. There is no "ruling" the world now. Mycerinus was as bone-headed as you, not surrendering when it was the clearest option." "Well, Mycerinus is dead and I'm still here! And I'm going to Gusty Gulch and reclaiming my ''legal ''throne!" Tubba snapped, glancing around the cavern desperately. There ''had ''to be a way to scale the cliff or get away from them, there simply had to be. Ludwig laughed again so that it sounded like there were twenty in the cavern. "Not very bright, are you, Tubba? You're standing in front of a horrifying drop to a lava pool. You're at the mercy of one Iglator-Koopa and three Clubbas. How do you expect to get out? You'll be joining Mycerinus soon." "You plan to kill me?" Once again, Tubba rounded on Clubbar. "My father trusted you with his AND my life!" He bellowed in fury, wishing nothing more than to race up the rocks and tackle the senile Clubba. "You're losing it! You want to kill the ''son ''of the King you ''vowed to serve?" Clubbar closed his eyes. "I didn't want to kill you. I wanted you safe and permanently indentured to the Glitz Pit. As long as you never left, you would've been fine." "But that would've required the cooperation of Chubba." Mazette cackled. "He had other plans." Before Tubba could even process the new piece of information, the four above the cliff shifted aside. Looking down at him from the cliff, clad in nothing but his shell and wearing a smile as wide as the Mushroom Mainland, was none other than his brother. Chubba Teal Clubba Blubba. * "Chubba! You! What?!" Tubba could barely form coherent sentences. He had left his brother weeks and weeks ago, and here he was, standing in front of him, the supposed mastermind behind the plan to kill him. "You wanted to kill me?" "I have for a while." Chubba shrugged, "I was just working out the way to do it." "Why?" The relationship with his brother had long been fractured, but Tubba couldn't wrap his head around why Chubba would want to kill him. He had long accepted his fate in the Glitz Pit. "That was your fault. You see, Tubba, many weeks ago, you and the rest of your team stopped bringing in money," began Chubba. "With the Glitz Pit being such a lucrative affair, most fights are well over the even line. Your team's fights, however, long lost the lustre that made a Glitz Pit team. You stopped bringing in the money. I needed a way to get rid of you. Thankfully, these three rang over the phone with a perfect solution." Chubba gestured at Clubbar, Mazette and Clubbette beside him. "Clubbar wanted you permanently indentured to the Glitz Pit," Clubbette took over; through her massive smile, Tubba could see missing teeth from the brawl. "Chubba made that clear it wasn't an option. He was not keeping someone who didn't bring in money. He actually gave us a hefty infusion of money to ensure we killed you, so he could claim life insurance." "Yes, the life insurance would serve to work off all the debts you had caused." Chubba spoke casually, a tone in all defiance of the situation. "From there, we made a deal with the Koopas," Mazette took over as Tubba ran over everything in his head. He had given up his chance at fleeing when his brother appeared. His head was spinning with the enormity of what was unfolding washing over him. He didn't even find enough strength in him to be angry. "They would kill you and annex our Kingdom from the Mushroom-Beans, in exchange for taking over the Clubba Kingdom without much rebellion." "So everything... from the battler walkout, to splitting up, to going to the Koopa Kingdom... was planned?" Tubba asked faintly, struggling to stay on his feet. "Well, I expected a battler walkout to some extent - you, Gonzales and Blizzerd, perhaps. The splitting up of the battlers was an unforeseen issue, but that would've just been a problem for Ludwig. He had enough difficulty killing you as it was." Chubba cast a disappointed glance at the Koopan Heir. "Well, master strategist, you've just been outplayed by your brother." "This is it, then? How I die?" Tubba questioned, his mind feeling strangely blank. His world had fallen around him. He had nothing left. Not his Kingdom, not his friends, not even his pride. "Not quite." Chubba shook his head. "You see, Ludwig's inability to kill you had an inadvertant effect. Now everyone knows of the Glitz Pit battlers who left the Glitz Pit to fight for the Clubba Kingdom. I've already been to the Clubba Castle as a "guest" of Mazette and offered the battlers raises of six hundred coins annually. Little do they know is that they'll just be swelling ''my ''bottom line, even with increased expenses. War heroes are popular." Chubba snickered, and then continued: "You were popular as well. I am willing to reconsider my decision of not allowing you to serve the Glitz Pit for the rest of my life, based on the amount of money you'll rake in for the next five years. Of course, you won't have a salary anymore, and you will not be able to leave the Glitz Pit or tell anyone of this." Power raced back into Tubba's limbs along with the fury. "Never! I'd rather die!" He shot at his brother, whose smile only grew wider. "I can hear the jest in your voice. You are terrified of dying, Tubba." Chubba smirked, and then turned to Ludwig. "Besides, I came prepared for this little snag." Ludwig snapped his fingers, and in a flash of lightning, lying beside Tubba on the ledge were Gonzales and Blizzerd. They were both unconscious, so when Tubba shook them, they did not respond to his touch or his desperate attempts to wake them with his fearful voice. "What did you do to them?" Tubba snarled at Chubba. "They're merely unconscious." Chubba informed him. "Now, you have a choice, Tubba. Come with me and live the rest of your life making me money in the Glitz Pit and let your friends live elsewhere in the Mushroom World, or die alongside your friends in a fiery volcano." Chubba shrugged: "It makes no difference to me. I've already won."